Do Boond Pani
Do Boond Pani (दो बूंद पानी, meaning Two Drops of Water) is a 1971 Hindi-language social drama film directed, written, and produced by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, about a farming family in a drought-stricken Rajasthan village whose son leaves home to work on a canal project that will bring water to the region1 • 2. It won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration3.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | Hindi film released in 1971; the Times of India lists 22 January 19713 |
| Runtime | 141 minutes (2 hours 21 minutes)1 |
| Director | Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, who also wrote the screenplay and produced1 |
| Music | Jaidev; lyrics by Kaifi Azmi and Balkavi Bairagi2 |
| Award | National Film Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration, 19713 |
| Leading cast | Jalal Agha, Simi Garewal, Kiran Kumar, Madhu Chanda, Sajjan, Prakash Thapa4 |
| Screen debut | Kiran Kumar's first film appearance5 |
Spoilers
Story and setting
The film is set entirely in Rajasthan, in a village suffering from long drought, where wells dry up and people must travel long distances to fetch water2 • 6. Freshly wed to Gauri (Simi Garewal), Ganga Singh (Jalal Agha) takes his bride home to his village, where his household includes his father Hari Singh (Sajjan) and his sister Sonki (Madhu Chanda)6. He learns of a canal being constructed through a government propaganda newsreel shown in a touring cinema, and leaves his wife to join the building of the project6 • 5.
While he is away the family goes through a series of misfortunes: his father dies, and his sister is raped by the dacoit Mangal Singh (Prakash Thapa). Ganga himself dies preventing a disaster at the dam site, but the dam is eventually built and brings greenery to the arid region; Gauri bears a son and lives on in the village6. A Hindi-language account describes the film as the story of the young farmer Ganga and his new, literate bride Gauri, showing the importance of water in a farmer's life7.
The film was shot on the site of the Rajasthan Ganga Sagar Canal Project, which the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema describes as one of the Nehru government's show pieces intended to transform the state's barren desert; it calls the film a distant echo of King Vidor's Our Daily Bread (1934), deploying the developmental rhetoric and Nehruite iconography of dams, bridges, and industrialization5 • 8.
Themes and reception
Water as a subject. ThePrint's retrospective review, written during the 2019 Chennai water crisis, describes the film as showing what a city-level Day Zero of water scarcity can look like. It notes the film's depiction of scarcity in concrete detail: visitors are served milk rather than water, bathing is a luxury, and women walk miles carrying small amounts of water9. The reviewer identifies the dam-site officer as a figure representing slow government work and the privilege the upper class enjoys over the poor in times of crisis, and notes that the second half exposes the inefficiency and shoddy execution of welfare projects9.
The Cine Gaurav review finds the film simple in narration, without loud dialogues or over-the-top performances, with a sub-theme about the slowness of government machinery and its impact on ordinary people; it judges that the film remains relevant to the present day on the importance of water2.
Box office failure. A Hindi-language retrospective states that the film disappeared from cinemas within a week of its 1971 release and was forgotten amid the wave of Rajesh Khanna films, though Kaifi Azmi's songs, notably "Pital ki mori gagari" and "Ja ri pawaniya piya ke des ja", continue to be remembered7. IMDb records a rating of 6.6/10 from 31 votes1.
Music and crew
The songs were written by Kaifi Azmi and Balkavi Bairagi with music by Jaidev, and were voiced by Asha Bhosle, Mukesh, Laxmi Shankar (credited on IMDb as Lakshmi Shankar), Minu Purushottam, and Parveen Sultana; the first two songs are placed in happier times and the remaining two in the darker part of the story2 • 4. The cinematographer was Ramchandra, the editor Mohan Rathod, and the art director Bansi Chandragupta4. Inder Raj Anand received credit for additional dialogue4.
Release and preservation
Sources disagree on the exact release date: the Times of India and its FAQ give 22 January 19713, while Moviebuff and komparify list 1 January 19715 • 10 and IMDbPro gives 23 August 1971 for India11.
The National Film Archive of India lists Do Boond Pani among its digitized and restored films12. The film also appears in the Films Division retrospective catalog of productions that won the Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration between 1965 and 1982, in the 1971 position13. As of the most recent checks on streaming aggregators, no streaming source carries the film in the United States or Japan6 • 14.
References
- Do Boond Pani (1971) – IMDb
- Do Boond Paani (1971) review – Cine Gaurav
- Do Boond Pani – eTimes, Times of India
- Do Boond Pani (1971) – Full cast & crew – IMDb
- Do Boond Pani – Moviebuff
- Do Boond Pani (1971): Where to Watch – Watchmode
- हिन्दी फिल्म 'दो बूंद पानी' – Kisan Tak
- Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema entry, indiancine.ma
- As Chennai grapples with water crisis, Do Boond Pani shows what Day Zero could look like – ThePrint
- Do Boond Pani – komparify
- Do Boond Pani – IMDbPro
- List of Restored Films – National Film Archive of India
- 31st National Film Awards catalogue – Films Division retrospective of Best Feature Film on National Integration winners
- Do Boond Pani – Filmarks VOD listing
Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Hindi films of the 1970s › Released 1970 to 1975
Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026
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